Put on salvation as your helmet … Ephesians 6:21

Our body armor is Christ’s righteousness; our helmet is our hope of salvation. Righteousness protects our heart; salvation protects our mind.

Renowned Bible teacher, Ray C. Stedman, points out that the salvation Paul is talking about here is not the salvation we already received as result of the gospel — the salvation from our sins — but the future salvation we know will come when confusion and doubt will be forever dispelled. “Paul is talking about the day of resurrection, the day of the coming again of Christ, the day when creation will be delivered from its bondage, when Christ returns to establish his kingdom” (Stedman).

Paul speaks of it again in 1 Thessalonians 5:8: “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.” Remember, “hope” in the Bible is not “wish,” but “expectancy.” We know it will happen. And because of that, we can weather the doubts, confusions and seeming setbacks that occur. The helmet of salvation guards our mind.

This piece of our armor is particularly useful today when there is so much social and political upheaval going on. The helmet of salvation will keep us from getting so wrapped up in the current conflicts that we lose our hope.

“The Christian has a helmet of salvation. He has an understanding that God is working out his purposes, and therefore he is not disturbed when human programs go wrong and everything fails. The Christian has learned to expect wars and rumors of wars to the very end. He expects false teachings and false philosophies to abound. He knows also that we are living in a mad world, a world which is deluded by subtle, satanic lies” (Stedman).

This does not mean, however, that we do not get involved in the discussion or take part in the exchange of ideas. We are in the marketplace and our hope will shine brightest there. It does mean that we don’t take sides. There are no human solutions to the problems we are facing globally and as nations. There are best case scenarios and that is up to each person to mitigate, as long as our ultimate hope remains in our salvation and not any human endeavor, and we use our place in the world as an opportunity to introduce everyone to the gospel of welcome — grace turned outward.

Keep your helmet on. Don’t be tricked by the enemy. Don’t succumb to the fear and confusion, nor should we try and fight it with human resources. Keep your hope steadfast in the Lord at all times. He will set everything straight in His time.

And be on the look out for false prophets. If what they are saying or doing is motivated by fear it is most definitely not of God. They don’t have their helmets on.

Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Romans 13:11